


Nothing Ventured

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Getting Back Together, Light Angst, Light Introspection, M/M, sam's a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 02:30:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5522144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve finds Bucky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Ventured

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kristen_mara](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=kristen_mara).



> Written as a Christmas present for the extremely lovely kristen_mara who gave the prompt “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. Takes place near the end of _Age of Ultron,_ doesn't really take into account the _Civil War_ trailer.

Hydra. He'd thought he'd done with Hydra, back in the war. He'd woken up in a world that was supposed to be free of those tendrils, infecting everything they touched. But supposing things didn't seem to be getting him very far.

He was supposed to be dead. He hadn't wanted to die – SHIELD's mandatory psych assessments had made him asses his decision from every angle possible – but his desire to save others had overridden all thought of self-preservation. That was what was supposed to have happened.

He would die and take Hydra out with him and the world would go on spinning, free of terror, or at least Hydra's particular brand of evil, he wasn't _that_ naïve.

But no. Hydra had survived, just as he had. Just as Bucky had.

Steve shook his head to clear it, and tried to re-focus on what Stark was saying. It only took a few seconds to realise that whatever the other man had wanted, now he was talking mostly to himself and had forgotten all about demanding he come and see his new Thingamajig.

He probably hadn't called it a Thingamajig.

“If we're done?” Steve asked. He didn't expect a reply so just headed back upstairs.

Waiting for him was Sam Wilson, bouncing on his feet like a kid in a candy store.

“You've found him?” Steve asked.

Sam's smile said it all.

* * * * *

Steve tried not to think too much about how easy it was, to slip out of Avengers Tower with no one wanting to know where he was going or when he was coming back. For a team that was supposed to have each others' backs, they kept a hell of a lot of secrets.

“You still with me, Cap?” Sam asked.

Steve grimaced. “Yeah, sorry. Lot on my mind.”

Sam raised an eyebrow but refrained from actually saying “no shit”, for which Steve was grateful. He knew way too many smartasses.

“I'll drive,” Sam said, sliding into a sleek black car that Steve hadn't seen before.

“Is this one of Stark's?” Steve asked, getting in next to him.

“He offered,” Sam said with a shrug. “And don't worry, I've already disabled the tracking devices.”

Steve nodded, a little grimly, and exaggeratedly put on his seat belt. Sam did the same with a soft shake of his head.

“Safety first,” Steve said, smiling.

“Yeah, 'cause this is the part where we need to be worried about our safety.”

Steve didn't have an answer for that.

* * * * *

Steve couldn’t remember the name of his first kiss. He thought she had dark hair (well, he had a type) and that hot dogs were involved somehow. But no matter how hard he thought about it he couldn’t conjure up a name or a face to go with it, just an image of dark hair.

He could remember the feeling though, the anticipation as he leaned forward, then she leaned forward and then they met in the middle. Then all he could remember was the disappointment. His mom had made him believe that there'd be fireworks, that everything would change. That he would be changed by it. But none of that happened. Not with her.

His first kiss with Bucky though...that changed his world forever.

It hadn't been a particularly special day, nothing to mark it out from any other day that he and Bucky went out. That day they'd made made it to Central Park and Bucky had surprised him with lunch that they ate on a bench, watching the world go by.

Conversation had turned, as it always did in those days, to the future, the war, all the possibilities laid out before them, theirs for the taking. Anything had seemed possible just then.

So it had felt perfectly natural to lean over when Bucky was laughing at some joke, eyes bright and full of life, to press a soft kiss to his lips. Bucky hadn't even hesitated, just pulled Steve in for another kiss, as if this was just what they did.

Steve's (un)official biography might lay claim to his world changing the day he became Captain America, Steve knew it was the day he kissed Bucky and Bucky kissed him back that was the real moment he changed.

* * * * *

Sam pulled up at a hanger in a private airport and pointed at one of the planes.

“Friend of mine's letting us borrow it for a couple of days.” He turned to look at Steve very seriously. “I promised him he'd get it back in one piece.”

“I'm not planning on wrecking the plane, Sam,” Steve said. He got out of the car, aware of Sam doing the same.

“From what I've seen, destroying property happens around you whether you plan it or not.”

Steve couldn’t argue with that, so he didn't even try.

“We on a deadline?” he asked Sam instead.

Sam shrugged. “He's safe, if that's what you're asking.”

Steve nodded. “He – he doing okay?”

“That, I don't know.” Sam grabbed their bags. “Let's go find out, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “Let's do that.”

* * * * *

What Steve always remembered about Bucky the most was how easy he was to smile. Everything would be okay, everything would work out., if only they put their heads together.

He'd smiled the whole time they'd made love, as if he couldn’t believe his luck, when really it should have been Steve who couldn’t believe that Bucky was there, kissing his way down Steve's chest.

He'd smiled as they'd kissed, and at the look on Steve's face as his release had rushed though him; Steve could only imagine what it had looked like, but he'd felt pretty damn good afterwards.

“Mine,” Bucky had whispered against his skin, a streak of possessiveness Steve didn't know what to do with. He liked it though, he always had. The idea that he was Bucky's in some intrinsic way, that not even death could keep them apart.

* * * * *

“Where are we?” Steve asked.

He stretched his arms over his head and felt his spine crackle as he moved. He'd moved into the cockpit to watch Sam work and then must have fallen asleep. All he could remember was ocean, that merged into Bucky's eyes that day he'd realised he and the Winter Soldier were one and the same.

“Barbados. Well, sort of.”

Steve raised an eyebrow.

“He's on a boat. We'll be going out to meet him as soon as we land this thing.”

Steve looked out at the expanse of blue and the islands, just coming into focus.

“You've gone to a lot of trouble. Thank you.”

“You'd do the same for me.” Sam grinned. “And don't think I won't be reminding you about this every chance I get.”

“I'll write you an I.O.U.,” Steve said.

“An I.O.U. from Captain America? Next stop, Ebay!”

Steve shook his head fondly but vowed to stay awake for the rest of the journey, Bucky would need him fresh and alert.

* * * * *

To the end of the line. Easy to say, hard to live by. Easy to die by though. Both of them gone into the cold, frozen hearts thawed but not brought to life.

Not yet.

* * * * *

Sam held back when they arrived on the boat, ostensibly to talk payment with the captain but Steve knew better. Not that he could quite wrap his head around the fact that he and Bucky were in the same place again.

He paused outside the door to Bucky's room. Ever since he brought down SHIELD every decision he'd made had been leading up to this moment. Every conversation with Sam, every casual obfuscation he let his team believe, every dream and every wish had lead him here, outside a nondescript door on a small boat in the middle of a big ocean.

Deciding that knocking would serve no useful purpose, he carefully opened the door and walked in.

He wasn’t sure what sort of reaction he was going to get, had no idea what damage he would face. But now he didn't hesitate to step inside and secure the door behind hem.

The figure on the bed moved and Steve’s heart nearly beat right out of his chest.

“Bucky? Bucky can you hear me?”

Steve moved forward and then sat on the floor, opposite the bunk Bucky was lying on.

“Bucky? Do you remember me?”

Bucky slowly turned around. Long hair fell about his face, temporarily shielding his eyes from view. Steve forced himself to stay back and let Bucky work at his own pace.

“Steve?”

His voice was raw, like he'd been screaming but Steve was just so damn glad to hear it he could barely breathe.

“Yeah, Buck, it's me.” He scooted a little closer. “I came to take you home.”

Bucky sat up in one stilted motion and stared down at Steve. He looked so lost. What Steve wouldn’t give to kiss that look right off his face.

“I have no home.”

“Yes, you do. Wherever I am, you're home. Do you remember – do you remember me saying that?”

Bucky shook his head. Then he cocked his head to one side as if he was trying to puzzle something out.

“There was a park. You kissed me.”

Steve gave a small smile. “Yeah. You kissed me back.”

“Why?”

“You told me that you loved me. Do your remember that?”

Bucky shook his head. “You came for me?”

“Always.”

Steve moved to open the bag he'd brought with him, keeping his movements slow and steady as Bucky tensed.

“Have you eaten?” Steve asked.

“I...I don't remember.”

Steve pulled out a small blanket and some sandwiches from his bag. Sam had looked bemused when Steve had directed him to stop for supplies before they arrived, but it was worth it just to see that first spark of recognition behind Bucky's eyes.

“How about we start with lunch?” Steve held up a sandwich and waited as Bucky stared at it and then slipped off his bunk onto the floor. After a few more moments of staring he took the sandwich, but didn't attempt to eat it.

Steve considered it a victory and concentrated on eating his own sandwich. He carefully hid his smile behind his hand as Bucky started to eat.

“Central Park,” Bucky said. “It was Central Park.”

“Yes,” Steve replied. “Yes it was”.

Bucky nodded, smiled as if pleased with himself, and went back to eating.

Steve finished first and gave himself permission to look, just for a little bit. Bucky didn't seem as lost as he had, but there was a weight on his shoulders, dragging him down.

Sam had warned him that it might be too late, that Bucky might have crossed a line too far to come back from. But Steve didn't care. No matter what it took he'd never leave Bucky alone again.

Their whole lives they'd had each other's back. Some bonds were simply unbreakable.

But that would come later. Right now he was content to sit and eat, and watch as the man he loved tried to put the pieces of himself back together.

* * * * *

The sun had been shining when they'd kissed the first time. The sandwiches were pastrami on rye, with extra mustard for Bucky. The grass was freshly mown, the crowds a dull roar in the distance. The sounds of children playing and bees buzzing filled the air. It was a perfect day.

* * * * *

The water was choppy when Steve found Bucky. The sandwiches were beef on white bread (the best he could find) with extra mustard for Bucky. The bunk room was cold and grey and smelled like metal and damp socks. The sounds of the engines whirring and raised voices in the corridor filled the air.

It was a perfect day.  



End file.
